15 Proposals
by TheresaJoliePitt
Summary: Rick Castle has one goal in mind and that is to think of the perfect way to propose to Kate Beckett...15 times. One shot. Set somewhere between the end of season 5 or 6. Reviews are nice. Rated T just to be safe.


_June 28th _

Today was the day he was going to propose. He'd do it using chocolate chips. Yes, chocolate chips on her pancakes. He looked at the bag of chocolate chips and took one out one by one, placing them on her pancakes on her plate. He knew she did not want over the top so this would be creative, tasty, and unexpected. He put the last chocolate chip on the bottom of the question mark. He made sure every chocolate chip was place properly. He turned his back and headed towards the refrigerator to get out orange juice...wait no...coffee. This event needed coffee to make it special. God, he must of really been nervous if he almost poured her orange juice instead of coffee.

He got her mug from the drainboard and poured the fresh coffee into it. He fixed it the way she liked it and he smiled slightly. Everything was perfect. Now he just needed to wait for Kate Beckett to wake up. Which should be in three...two..one... Sure enough the sound of her alarm sounded on schedule and the slight groan could be heard. He smiled, being thankful that he was the only one that got to hear the first sound Kate Beckett made in the morning and the last one she made at night. This was it. He was about to find out if Kate, the love of his life, would say yes to marrying him.

The beeping stopped, which meant Kate turned off the alarm. He heard her getting out of bed and walking towards the closet. She opened it, probably taking out a robe, before quickly closing it. Sure enough the door to their bedroom opened and it revealed a still sleepy Kate Beckett in his blue bathrobe. Sleepy Beckett was one of his favorite layers of the Beckett onion. If they were still in bed she would snuggle closer to him and mumble mostly incoherent statements.

She was rubbing her eyes when she entered the kitchen. She gave him a soft smile as she made her way to the bar where she smelt pancakes. She headed over to Castle first and kissed his lips softly. "I don't like waking up to you not next to me. But freshly made breakfast, especially your amazing pancakes, makes it worth it."

"Good to know that I can always win you over with pancakes." He kissed her lips quickly.

"Only works during breakfast time." She smirked before heading over to the bar where she looked at what was in her plate with confusion. She then looked at him. "Did you go overboard with the chocolate chips again?"

He gave her a confused look and looked down at the pancakes...crap. He should of let the pancakes cooled down because the words Will you marry me were now melted into a puddle of chocolate all over her pancakes. "I...um..."

Kate shook her head and smiled. "It can't be any worse than the smorelet. I still have no idea why I agreed to eating that." She picked up her fork and took a bite of her pancakes.

"Because you love me...oh and my puppy dog eyes are one of your many weaknesses when it comes to me."

Beckett rolled her eyes, not wanting to admit to that. "I'll admit that I love you but I will not admit that that look works on me." She smiled before taking another bite of her chocolate pancakes.

Rick sighed slightly as he saw the puddle of chocolate in her plate. Guess he had to go with plan B. Problem though, there was no plan B. He would have to wait another day to ask her to be his wife. This was going to feel like an eternity.

_June 29th _

This time he had it. This time the chocolate wasn't going to melt...well in this case it would be the foam in her coffee and the cinnamon on top of it that he made say Will you marry me?. This would be perfect. She looked liked she could use a pick me up while sitting at her desk trying to solve this case. What better pick me up then coffee and having her boyfriend propose to her? There were not many people at the 12th today, just Ryan, Esposito, and a few new officers, so they wouldn't have much of an audience.

He smiled at his perfect plan. He doubled checked that he had the ring in his pocket before picking up their coffee mugs and turning to head back to his girlfriend. Well his girlfriend caught him by surprise as he turned around, which made him bumped into her and making him spill the coffee on both of them. Deja vu?

"Castle!"

"Kate, I'm so..."

Kate and Castle both looked at the coffee, foam, and cinnamon on her shirt. She took her finger and placed it on her blouse to see if new addition to her coffee was indeed cinnamon. She licked the tip of her finger and sure enough she was right. "Cinnamon? That's new. Too bad I wasn't able to taste it in how it was intended to be." She smiled as she looked at Castle watching her. She then shook her head, getting back on track. "You can stare later. We have a lead but first we need to change. I can't arrest a suspect wearing a coffee stained shirt."

He sighed and placed the empty mugs into the sink. He would rinse them out later. Plan C would have to work. After all she was his third times the charm so the next one should work...right? He hoped.

"You coming, Castle?" She asked as she pressed the button for the elevator.

He headed out of the break room and followed her to the elevator so they could head down to the locker rooms. When the elevator doors closed, Kate leaned up and pressed her lips to his to taste the drops of coffee that landed on them. She smiled as she pulled away from him. "Good coffee, Castle. It's exactly what I needed."

He smiled as he wrapped an arm around his waist to bring her closer to him. If she kept kissing him like that the whole waiting for the right moment might not seem like an eternity.

_July 4th_

The first time they met were due to flowers on a dead body. Dead bodies do not scream romance so that left him with flowers. But how was he going to make this work? Maybe order a whole bunch of flowers, put them in vases on the fire escape to spell out will you marry me with them? No, too many flowers. Take the petals and spell it out on their bed...that could work...no wait...spell it out on the kitchen table. That's where they found the girl's body, on a table. It would be perfect!

The flowers couldn't melt and since they were on the table he or she couldn't spill them. This time it was going to work, just like he told himself the last time. He heard the front door open and the lovely Kate Beckett walked inside their home. She kicked off her high heels and placed down her keys on the side table. "Hey, I missed you today." She smiled before standing up on her tippy toes to kiss him sweetly. "Did you meet your deadline?"

"I hope so." Castle took her hand in his and headed over to the kitchen table where the mixture of rose petals and sunflower petals spelled out Kate, will you marry me. Just as Kate was about to be in view of the petals on the table they heard a boom and the night sky light up. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Guess I made it home just in time for the fireworks." She opened the glass doors to get onto the small balcony to look at the fireworks.

He looked back quickly to make sure the flowers were still positioned correctly on the table before following her outside. He waited all day for her to come home, he could wait a little longer. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She smiled as she leaned back into his arms. The feeling of being home and in his arms on a summer night couldn't of been more perfect. A surprise gust of wind tousled their hair as they looked up into the sky. Rick looked back at the table and saw that the gust of wind had also moved the petals. If he could just sneak back inside for a few seconds without Kate noticing this could still...before Castle could finish his thought Kate had moved her head so she was resting it on his shoulder and he could feel her breath against his skin. She pressed her lips to the pulse point of his neck.

Maybe he should just do it here, right now, with the fireworks. If she kept placing kisses on his neck he wouldn't be able to remember he was trying to propose to her. "Kate, I..."

She put a finger to his lips and shushed him. "Not now, Rick." She removed her finger from his lips and replaced them with her soft lips. "Just enjoy the fireworks. They only happen once a year."

"Well they won't be as good as they were last year." He smirked as he wiggled his eyebrows.

She gave him a slight, fake, glare. "Oh I don't know Castle. I heard that they have learned some new techniques. The grand finale should be even more amazing than it was last year." She smirked as she playfully ran one of her hands down his chest, undoing his shirt buttons as she went.

For once Richard Castle was speechless. "...What?"

Kate laughed slightly and smiled at him. "Reading Lanie's Cosmo while waiting for test results does have it's perks." She smirked before they were sharing a passionate kiss. Proposing to her could wait another day. Right now they needed to take care of other needs.

_July 8th_

So spelling the words out weren't really working in his favor. He always had a way with words so why not just say what he wanted to ask. He asked her to meet her in Central park on her break at their usual spot. He told her that he would bring the coffee and bearclaws. He sat on the bench that over looked the lake. He looked at the birds swimming in the pond and the few dogs that passed by with their owners.

It was a beautiful day and this spot was perfect. It was quite, but not too quite. There were a few flowers that had survived the heat around the the bench. The coffee and the bearclaws were just an added bonus.

He kept looking at his phone, getting very impatient. Just as he was about to begin tapping his foot he saw her beautiful face appear on his iPhone screen. Before he could even open his mouth he heard her. "I'm sorry, Rick. I'm so so so sorry. I'll make it up to you I promise. Anything you want I'll do it."

"Kate, what are you sorry about? And anything?" He smirked. Anything at this moment would her bailing on whoever asked her to stay at the 12th and coming to the park to meet him so he could finally pop the question to her and have her say yes or no. But he knew that was not going to happen.

Kate rolled her eyes at his comment. "I can't make it to the park and have lunch with you. This suspect is giving us a hard time and Gates wants me to stay until I get a confession out of him or some form of lead. I promise, I'll make you dinner tonight to make it up to you."

He held back a sigh. Of course Gates would ruin his proposal. He swore that woman had psychic powers and used it to ruin his plans. "It's okay, Kate. Go get the bad guys. You're lucky I know you're the best detective there is."

She smiled softly. "Hey, I love you. I would be there if I could. And I promise I'll make your favorite tonight."

"Smorelets?!"

She rolled her eyes again and laughed slightly as her lips formed into a smile. "Second favorite."

"Mac and Cheese! Are they going to be shaped as Spongebob?"

Kate couldn't help the smile that spread across the face grow. She really was dating a five year old. But she loved him none the less. She would not trade him for any other man. "I'll see what I can do." She looked over her shoulder and saw Esposito waving for her to come into the interrogation room. She sighed. "I've got to go. But I'll see you at dinner. I promise. Mac and Cheese along with a horror movie."

"Kate, wait!"

"What?"

"I love you too."

She smiled and flipped a strand of her hair before she pressed the hangup button. After all this time he was still able to cause those butterflies in her stomach. She walked with determination to the interrogation room. There was no way this suspect was going to ruin her dinner date tonight.

_July 12th _

Kate had taken a few days off of work to spend it with him at the Hamptons. He knew she needed a mini vacation and he was happy to offer his services to her. He'd do anything to help her relax. She was sitting in between his legs on the beach, resting her head against his shoulder. This was it. He could do this. He just had to say the words. Kate, I love you and it would make me the happiest man a live if you were to become my wife. That's all he had to do.

She snuggled closer to him and sighed as the breeze hit her, sending a shiver down her spine. She put her hand in his and squeezed it slightly. "Castle."

He looked down at her. "Kate."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being you, for waiting, for loving me."

"Kate..."

She turned so she could press her lips to his for a sweet kiss. "No, shh. Let me finish. I love you and I know I can drive you to your breaking point when it comes to somethings but you still stick by me and you still love me. No one has loved me as much as you, ever, in a relationship. So thank you for making me feel like I'm alive again."

He brought her closer into his embrace and kissed her temple. "Always."

This wasn't the moment for him to propose. This was her moment to tell him how much she loved him. With him being as nervous as he was to pop the question to her he might not be able to beat her speech. He was going to pop the question when she least expected it. Maybe the sixth try to propose to her would be the right time. Until then, he was going to enjoy the night out on the beach with the love of his life in his arms.

_July 21st_

The zoo! The zoo was the spot. Right by the elephants, since she loved elephants. He asked her once why and she answered because they never forget. So they walked hand in hand around the zoo on Kate's day off. They stopped off at the little hot dog stand to get a hot dog for each of them and a bottle of water. It was a perfect date for them. They had each other and there was no one around them to recognize them. It was perfect. And when they got to the elephants it would even more perfect.

"So Castle, what's your favorite animal here at the zoo?"

"I like the seals."

"And why is that?"

"I don't know. They do cool tricks."

"Why can I see me coming home from work one day to find a seal in the loft?"

He smiled. "Don't give me any ideas." He placed a kiss on the top of her head as he led her over to where the elephants were said to be. Once they got to the cage they found that the elephants were missing. "Where are the elephants?!"

"Castle, I know I'm a detective but I don't have all the answers."

"Sorry, sir. The mother elephant got sick and we had to take her and her two kids to get treated. They should be returning tomorrow." The man said that was getting their cage ready.

Rick sighed and turned to Kate. "I'm sorry that the elephants aren't here."

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "Don't worry about it. It was still a great date. Besides, we still have to go see the seals. Just do not ask the trainer if you can buy one."

He gave her a soft smile. He should have just bought an elephant.

_July 25th _

He was running out of ideas. He stared at his laptop screen. Richard Castle was not going to google how to propose to his girlfriend. No, he could do this! He came up with six ideas already, he could think of another. All he could think of was helicopter rides, a message on the times square big screen, and book dedications.

Book dedications would take forever and he wanted to give this ring to her a month and half ago. Maybe he could make a fake one and have her proof read it? But what would he write? The dedication would have to be small and there were so many things to say about how extraordinary Kate was and how much he loved her. It was worth a shot though.

He typed the words, "To Kate, You become more and more extraordinary each day. I will always love you...even if you say no to marrying me."

He closed the document just as he heard the door open. He exited his study to greet her. She always knew when he was there. She smiled as she took off her high heels. "So did you finish your last chapter?"

"Not quite. But I do have something I want you to read." She smiled brightly at him. She secretly really liked it when he asked her to read his work before anyone else. She walked into his study with him and opened the document he asked her to open. She gave him a confused look when she opened the document.

"There's nothing here Castle."

"What?!"

"It's a blank document."

He leaned over her shoulder. "I was just working on it. I swear there were words on that screen!"

She looked at him and shook her head. "The whole the computer didn't save my work isn't going to fool me. I know you've been playing games all day."

"Kate, I...ok well I was playing Guitar Hero but this did have words on it five seconds ago."

"Make sure you double check next time." She kissed him quickly before getting out of her chair. "I'm going to go beat your high score now on Guitar Hero while you finish writing." She smiled before exiting the study.

Castle sighed. He should have known that proposing to Kate Beckett wasn't going to be easy. It took four years for them to be a couple. He just hoped that it wouldn't take four years to propose to her.

_August 2nd_

She loved Chinese food. So why not make her fortune extra special. He asked their favorite Chinese food restaurant to slip the homemade fortune that said "Kate, will you marry me?". They were happy to do it and gave him his fortune and hers.

They were sitting on the sofa eating their kung po chicken and rice while watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith. He grabbed her fortune and handed it to her. "Chinese food is nothing until you have read your fortune."

She smiled as she took it from him. She read it out loud, like she usually did. "Your future is looking bright."

Castle's face fell. "What?"

"I said your future is looking bright. See." She showed him her fortune.

He opened his and saw that he gave her the wrong one. He sighed. Plan H failed. Proposing to her should not be this difficult. "Bad fortune?" She asked seeing his facial expression change.

"It says you'll be needing a bigger house soon...I'm hoping that doesn't mean mother will be moving back in." He could of just read the real fortune to her but that was not how the plan was supposed to go. The surprise would still be their but the revealing would not be the same.

She laughed a bit and smiled before placing the cookie in her mouth.

He looked at his lucky numbers. "2, 9, 47, 15, 1"

He was hoping that it wouldn't take forty-seven times until he was able to propose to her.

_August 8th_

Ninth time's the charm? He was going to make a video of him saying all the things he needed to say and then have her watch it. He'd trick her saying he found an old video of him as a kid dressed up as the Green Lantern and that she had to see. She still had two hours left of work so he had plenty of time to record what he wanted to say and then burn it to a dvd.

He set up the camera by his desk and took a deep breath. He wasn't really sure if what he said was perfect. He wrote it down on his notepad until he had it exactly right. He turned on the camera and looked at it.

"Hi, Kate. I know you're expecting this to be an embarrassing video of me but I'm sure you won't be disappointed with this video. At least I hope. When we first met I knew you were going to be special to me but I didn't know how special you really would be to me. You are the most extraordinary, beautiful, amazing woman I have ever met. We've come a long away to lead us to this moment. And it was worth every second of it. All the fights we've had made us stronger and they should us that we can make it through anything. Kate, I love you. I have for a long time. There is not one day where you are not on my mind. There is no one else like you and there never will be. You're the only one that can have my heart and I don't want it back. So, Kate. Will yo do the honor of marrying me?"

He turned off the camera and plugged the camera up to his computer. He looked at the time. 10 minutes to spare. When the folder for the camera came up there was no files in there. How could that be?! He just recorded it. He knew that he turned on the camera. He saw the red light! Where was the file?

He unhooked the camera quickly and set it up again. "Castle, what are you doing?"

He jumped. "Beckett! Kate! What are you doing home early?"

"10 minutes isn't really early but I finished the paper work and decided to head home. What are you doing with the video camera?"

"I'm just...seeing if there is any old videos on here."

"Any luck?"

He sighed. "No. There's nothing on there."

She walked over to him and kissed his lips softly. "I was hoping you'd say there was an embarrassing video of you on there. That would have been funny to see."

"Yea, me too." Technology was clearly not his friend because if it was his plan would have been brilliant.

_August 14th _

He was going to try writing and food again. Everything else was failing so he had nothing to loose. He went to the bakery that he knew Kate liked and ordered her favorite cheesecake, Strawberry. Castle asked them if they could write "Will you Marry Me?" on the cake. They gladly obliged.

He picked up the cake after he picked up their Italian take out food. He entered the loft where he say Kate lying down on the sofa, clearly relaxed after her bath. She looked up when she heard the door open and smiled at him, but then her smile grew when she recognized the box on top of the bag of their dinner. "What's in the box?"

"Dessert. But you'll have to eat your dinner first." He smiled as she moved her feet so he could sit down next to her.

"Coming from the man that eats whipped cream for dinner? Come on, Rick."

"I did that one time...okay twice...but now I only like whipped cream if it's on you." He whispered the last part against her ear, making sure his breath against her skin made her shiver.

She bit her bottom lip and turned slightly so she could face him. "You sure you do want to skip dinner and go straight for dessert?" She smiled at him seductively.

Oh god. This woman was going to be the death of him. "Has anyone ever told you you're very persuasive, Detective Beckett."

She smiled. "A few, Mr. Castle." She took the box from him and opened it. She looked at the cake. "Are they trying a new design?"

He looked down at the cake and saw that the words "Will you marry me?" were now just swirls on top of the cake. It must of tipped over when he was driving back home. Guess the tenth time wasn't going to be it.

"I bet it still tastes delicious." She said before taking a bite out of the slice of cheesecake she cut for herself.

_August 24th_

At times like this he wished Kate wanted the big proposal. He could go on the Ellen DeGeneres show and pop the question there. The papers were going to find out eventually. But he also wanted his proposal to be special and not put pressure on her for her to say yes. He wanted Kate to be ready and did not want to rush things. If he wanted to rush this relationship it wouldn't have taken them four years to finally kiss and mean it.

Maybe he could get Ryan or Esposito to pull her over? She would know something would be up though as soon as she saw who the officers were pulling her over. Then he got it! The boardwalk. Right on top of the Ferris wheel at night. It would look over the water and all the lights from the boardwalk and the light from the moon would be shinning down on it. This would be perfect.

Castle picked her up after work and headed over to the boardwalk. One of the final days before summer was ending and kids were going back to college so it made it hard to have the boardwalk to themselves but that wasn't going to stop Rick Castle from proposing to his girlfriend. He tried this ten times already and he was not about to back down now.

They got in line to ride the Ferris wheel, which Kate thought was a bit childish for them but Castle convinced her that he would not shut up about it unless they rode it. Besides the view from on top of the Ferris Wheel would be pretty amazing.

They were just about to step onto the ride when the couple getting off the ride were smiling and the woman had tears in her eyes. He looked down at her finger...she had just gotten engaged...right on top of the Ferris Wheel. Damn it. He had never been so unhappy for someone getting married before than he was right now.

Richard Castle was sure not going to be a copy cat. He sighed as he lead Kate onto the ride. "She looks really happy. That was a cute idea." Kate said as she sat down.

"Yea...very creative."

_October 24th _

He took a month off from trying to propose to her. Maybe then luck would be on his side and he could propose to her properly. They went to to a pumpkin patch to get the loft ready for Halloween. With Alexis gone he needed someone to continue the pumpkin carving tradition.

They got one pumpkin each, even though Castle wanted to buy the whole patch, and agreed that an hour time limit would be perfect until they revealed their masterpieces to another. He planned on carving will you marry me into the pumpkin. He opened up the top of the pumpkin and cleaned out the pumpkin. Maybe after wards they could see who could make the best pumpkin pie.

He looked over at Kate who was tapping a pencil against her lips. She was so cute when she wasn't sure what to do. When she finally had an idea of what to carve she snapped her fingers and started tracing her outline on the pumpkin. She made sure to turn her pumpkin where Rick couldn't see what she was creating. He smirked before he went back working on his.

50 minutes went by and they were both almost done. Castle just had to cut out one more section. Once he was satisfied he put a fake candle inside the pumpkin to light it up and look at his work. When he saw it he frowned. He cut the wrong section. "Will you marry me?" turned out looking like a snake. How that happened he had no idea. Luck was still not on his side. He really wished Kate let him buy more than just the two pumpkins. He should of known this was going to happen.

They heard the timer go off and Kate put down her tools. "Alright, Castle. Show me yours and I'll show you mine." She smirked.

He turned his pumpkin around to show her the snake.

"How did you do that?"

"I honestly have no idea."

_November 15th_

It was November now and it was getting colder. But that was great for his next plan. She had not been ice skating since her mother was still alive. He wanted her to keep the happy memories of them ice skating a live and to add another happy memory at the ice rink. Yes, the ice rink would have people around it but most of them would be kids out with their parents. They would not have an idea of what was going on.

Kate was hesitant at first when he asked her but she agreed. Surprisingly, it didn't take them long to gain their balance on the ice and skate around the rink like pros...well okay maybe not pros but at least they were not falling down.

They were on their second lap around the rink when Rick went to check his pocket to pull out the box that contained her ring. He stopped short when he didn't feel it in there and suddenly remembered the box was in his other pants, which caused Kate to crash into him and knock them both over onto the ice.

"Castle!" She laughed a bit. She wasn't thrilled to be down on the ice but she wasn't entirely upset either.

"Sorry, I um...thought I heard my phone ringing."

She rolled her eyes, not buying that for a second. "Yea, right. You were by my side all this time and all of a sudden you pick up some speed to go in front of me and then stop dead. You wanted me to fall on you."

He sighed. "Alright, you got me."

She smiled. "Yea, I do." She leaned down to press a soft kiss to his lips. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For helping me create happy memories here again."

"Always."

_December 1st _

It was December. He had three weeks until Christmas and he was determined that in those three weeks he would have a successful proposal. Maybe in front of the big tree? No, too many people. He decided to try the simple at home proposal again. He ordered a banner to hang in the kitchen for her to see when she arrived home from work.

He ordered some flowers, but nothing over the top, and lite the room with some candles. He opened a bottle of champagne and poured some into the flutes. This was it. This time it was going to work. He opened the package he had received in the mail, knowing it was the banner. He opened it up and read it. "I love you, Kate. Will you marry me?" It was short, sweet, and perfect.

He stood on one of the chairs to hang it up. He took one of the tacks and stuck it through the fabric and attached it to the wall. He smelt something burning...He wasn't cooking anything...Oh no. He looked down and saw the end of the banner had fallen onto a lit candle. "No, no, no, no."

He got down from the chair and quickly brought the banner over to the sink to put the water on the banner and put out the fire. Once the fire was out he looked at the banner. He was not going to propose to her with a wet and burnt banner. He sighed and threw out the banner. Just in time too because he heard the door unlock and Kate's high heels hit the floor.

"Rick, did you burn..." She stopped mid sentence when she saw the candles, flowers, champagne. "What's all this?"

"Just a little something for you after a long day at work."

Kate smiled at him before walking over to him to kiss him lovingly. "Just when I thought I could not love you more." She said as she removed her lips from his.

_December 12th_

He got it! This time it was going to work! Why? Because he was using extra forces. He gave in that he needed help. No other man would have to think of fifteen ways to propose to a woman but him. But Kate wasn't any other woman. He asked Lanie, his mother, his daughter, her father Esposito, Ryan, and Jenny to help out. He got them all shirts. Lanie had the KATE , her father had BECKETT, his mother had WILL, his daughter had YOU, Esposito had MARRY, Ryan had ME, and Jenny had a question mark. This would work out perfectly. There was no way the fifteenth time would fail. And if it did he was just going to give up and slip the ring on her finger while she was sleeping. He was going to make his goal to propose to her by Christmas.

He had invited the gang over to the loft for dinner. Little did they know that they were going to be part of Castle's plan. Well his mother and Alexis did but everyone else was out of the loop. Lanie arrived with Esposito first. He asked them to come with him into his study where Martha, Jim, and Alexis were. He handed them their shirts.

Lanie was ecstatic that she was going to be apart of Castle's proposal. Esposito was also glad to help out. Ryan and Jenny came next and Castle ushered them to his study. He handed them their assigned shirts. They lit some candles and order more flowers to make the study look more romantic, since this time it was going to work. He was sure of it. Now all they had to do was wait until they heard the door open.

Once they did they double checked that they were standing in the right order. Castle finally got down on one knee in front of his friends and family when he heard Kate's voice call for him. "In here, Kate."

They saw the door knob move and the door open. Kate started at them with a shocked expression when she read their shirts. She smiled down at Castle, who was holding out the box with the ring inside. "Rick...this is perfect. And yes, I'll marry you." She knelt down so she could kiss him lovingly. Their friends and family applauded behind them.

The pulled away and Rick finally was able to slide the ring onto her finger. "I love you. I guess the fifteenth time is the charm."

She gave him a confused look. "I love you too and what are you talking about."

"I tried to purpose to you fourteen other times and they all have been ruined or interrupted somehow."

She laughed and smiled as she got up from the floor. She intertwined their hands. "Well Castle you really should of expected this. It took us four years for us to get together."

Rick brought her hand up to his lips to place a soft kiss on it. "It was worth every second."

Once all their friends and family left the loft Kate and Rick lying down on the sofa. Kate was lying in Rick's arms while Rick had his back against the sofa. "So what were the fourteen other proposals that apparently I missed?"

"The chocolate chips on the pancakes were supposed to say will you marry me but they melted, the cinnamon I spilled on you, along with your coffee, said will you marry me on top of the foam, the rose and sunflower petals that were blown away also spelled would you marry me, Gates made you stay later at work so you could not meet me at the park where I was going to propose, you stole my moment at the Hamptons, the elephants were sick, my computer did not save the fake dedication that asked you to marry me on my laptop, I gave you the wrong fortune cookie, the video camera was not recording my proposal, the will you marry me got messed up while driving home, there was already a couple that night that got engaged on the Ferris wheel, somehow my pumpkin carving skills failed me, I forgot the ring at home when we went ice skating, and the banner that said will you marry me caught on fire."

She could not help and smile at him before kissing his lips softly. "Why didn't you just propose to me using the pancakes and chocolate chips the next day?"

"Because if it didn't work the first time I was scared it wouldn't work again and you would catch on. You are one of the best detectives after all."

She placed her hand in his. "I don't know any other guy that would try to propose to his girlfriend fifteen times and not give up."

"Well nothing in life is easy. The best things in life are the things you have to fight for."

She smiled softly before kissing him again. "For the record if any of the fourteen proposals would have worked I would of said yes. I am just really glad you didn't rent a helicopter or propose to me on some late night show."

"So Ellen DeGeneres would have been fine?" He smirked and she rolled her eyes. "What, she's not late night," he said before kissing her.

She smiled against his lips. She was kissing her fiance, Richard Castle, and she had never felt more like the luckiest woman a live.


End file.
